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What is a healthcare app?
Healthcare apps are platforms, mainly mobile applications, that help users monitor health indicators, such as physical activity, symptoms of illness, medication intake, and mental health. For example, the app can track how many hours you sleep, how many steps you take, what your blood pressure is, and so on. Some apps allow you to communicate with doctors, get urgent medical care, view summaries of examinations, and receive prescriptions.
A boom in the health app market
Health apps are not unusual or new, but despite them being well-known, the healthcare market size is still growing. Among the main healthcare technology trends is that apps become more user-friendly and popular, even mainstream. Let’s see how the market has grown in recent years.
In 2024 , the mobile health app market earned $36.68 billion, and it is expected to reach $88.70 billion by 2032. The COVID-19 pandemic affected the market. In 2020, product launches and download rates for telehealth apps increased by 42%.
The market is clearly gaining value, so launching your own minimum viable product for healthcare today is a reasonable decision. The main factor driving the development of the market was the growing adoption of fitness and medical applications for collecting and tracking health-related data.
What a good healthcare app looks like
When you create a product for a healthcare startup, you should always think about user experience. We gathered several important criteria users pay attention to.
Easy to use
Your healthcare product should be intuitive and functional. A user-friendly UI is a guarantee that users easily achieve their goals using your app. To boost usability when creating a minimum viable product, make sure that all buttons are clear, there is a logical and well-developed user flow, and a smooth and simple sign-in process.
In GSR, a healthcare solution for online psychologist consultations, a user can book a consultation in five steps. For this healthcare MVP, we designed a clean white background and used purple as an accent color. This helps draw the user’s attention to the important elements — buttons and banners.
At Purrweb, we developed the minimum viable product from scratch
This approach helps guide users to the key action — booking a consultation — and simplifies the onboarding process.
Do not make your healthcare MVP too complicated. Say, if originally you started developing a yoga application, it’s not necessary to create an app with an AI chatbot and plenty of articles about each and every medicine.
Accessible data
Ensure that your app provides users with clear information and actionable steps. Everyone should understand how to find the tab they need. Create clear dashboards with needed indicators and make access to information about examinations and analyses simple. It’s a good idea to offer new clients a brief onboarding.
Interpreting medical tests can be a challenge for patients. That’s what inspired our clients to come up with Biogeek, a healthcare solution for analyzing and monitoring medical data.
Biogeek visualizes the results of medical tests and presents them as bar charts. In the case of critical health conditions, the bar chart changes its color to red, indicating that something is wrong.
Simple communication process
Not all apps include communication, but if you want to, you should make it convenient. A 2021 survey found that 76% of medical specialists believe they can provide an online care comparable to face-to-face visits.The experts also calculated that the time for one in-person visit on average was 121 minutes, which can be lowered if patients choose online.
Online appointments do more than just save time. For certain people, like cancer patients, face-to-face medical appointments can be exhausting and even risky for their immune systems.
For Medico, a medical platform for oncologists, we developed two apps — a minimum viable product for cancer patients and a web version for the doctors.
The app replaces in-person appointments with regular surveys and continuous result monitoring. Doctors receive real-time updates on patients’ conditions via a dashboard and can quickly respond in case of an emergency.
Available community
Some apps are designed to be individual. However, apps for fitness, meditation, and healthcare can provide an opportunity to join a community. Specialists claim that social features in healthcare apps enhance the ability of users to adhere to treatment plans and healthier habits.
Features of a good healthcare app
Benefits of developing an MVP for healthcare
For those who want to create an application in healthcare, there are several benefits, financial and ideological.
Engaging people to take care of their health
An app is a great engagement tool, that’s why you can involve people in committing to their healthy lifestyle by creating a healthcare MVP. Additionally, it increases healthcare accessibility, making communication with medical staff simple. By launching your minimum viable product in healthcare, you will make a significant contribution to the development of an important sector for the welfare of society. Your product is not just a game but a tool that will make people’s lives better, safer, and more comfortable.
Raising money
If you own a healthcare startup, there are several possible ways to make money off of it. You can add advertising to the app, offer users a paid subscription with advanced features, promote the services of doctors and nutritionists, and use affiliate marketing. There are tangible advantages if the monetization scheme includes working with pharmaceutical manufacturers, private medical institutions, and laboratories.
MVP development for healthcare pays off. If your app enhances the customer experience, it will be popular among users all over the world. The larger the audience you get, the more money you can make.
How to make money on your health app
Challenges in creating an MVP for a healthcare startup
Challenges in creating an MVP for healthcare
Each healthcare project is unique, so the difficulties that your business faces may differ from general trends, but there are common patterns. Some challenges that appear in the healthcare MVP development process include:
The competitive market of the healthcare industry
The healthcare application market is tight, and it already has its leaders. For a startup, it doesn’t make sense to compete with the big companies — usually, at the start, you won’t have such large budgets as they do. Therefore, it is better to enter unoccupied niches, attract the first users, and then scale to new markets.
Problems with prioritization of functions
In an attempt to stand out from the competition, you can overload your application. Too many functions and an incomprehensible interface are likely to alienate your user. Choose the type of application, for example, create a fitness tracker, focus on its main function, and do not add too many features.
Data security & a chance of attacks
User privacy is vital even when developing a yoga application, and in apps for tracking symptoms of severe diseases or communicating with doctors, this is the main focus. You need to ensure that all user data will be encrypted and secured. This way, you will gain more customer trust and loyalty.
Health risks for some users
This is a risk that you can hardly avoid. Each patient is unique, and their body may react differently to training, a change of diet, or medication. Try to avoid direct guides to action. Make a disclaimer that these are recommendations and that users should individually monitor their health.
The need for compliance with the rules
The medical sector is strictly regulated by law, as there is a need to secure personal data and health records. There are several compliance requirements like HIPAA, DPA, and GDPR that you must meet. Read more about it below or check out our guide to HIPAA compliant app development.
MVP compliance requirements in medical startups
Every MVP for healthcare startups must meet industry requirements in the region where they operate. In healthcare, you have to deal with a lot of sensitive data, so you should be extremely careful when it comes to complying with data security regulations. If you develop an MVP that violates the rules, you may be fined.
The regulations you may encounter are:
Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA)
A federal law in the US that protects the privacy of patients and their medical records. In simple words, HIPAA requires healthcare providers to take measures to protect medical information from disclosure or access outside the organization. To comply with HIPAA requirements, use electronic data encryption and make sure that no third parties have access to patient information. You can read more about how to develop a HIPAA-compliant app in our blog.
General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)
The EU regulation that contains rules on the protection of individuals concerning personal data processing. The GDPR applies to all personal data, while the HIPAA law regulates and protects only the medical information of patients.
Data Protection Act (DPA)
The UK regulation that protects the personal data of British patients and companies.
When it comes to healthcare MVP development, there are also several ISO and IEC standards that need to be taken into account to ensure the high quality of the software and data safety.
How to meet the compliance requirements for healthcare MVP development
How to develop a healthcare MVP in 5 steps
At Purrweb, we can create a successful and unique minimum viable product for you. We have already rolled out 300 MVPs for startups. You can check out our portfolio and learn how we help healthcare companies.
Here are the steps included in the minimum viable product development for healthcare when you work with us.
Step 1: Planning your project
To begin with, you as a business owner need to choose a segment you want to work in. This could be an app for sports, nutrition, sleep control, tracking health indicators, or communication with doctors. Analyze the market before starting a project and define your idea, the general concept, and the target audience. Then, bring your idea to us, and our specialists will do the rest.
If you have any questions at this stage, contact the experts, but still, product owning will be yours.
Step 2: Creating a design
During the MVP development, we take care of the user experience. Find some references that the development team will use to create the interface. Analyze your competitors and read user reviews. Then, we will design your app with a team of UI/UX designers.
Step 3: Developing an app
The most important thing is development, namely coding. Our team works on Java Script. We use React.js, Node.js, and Electron, and for mobile applications – React Native. We take into account the subtleties of the industry, as it’s strictly regulated.
Step 4: Testing your app
We recommend thinking about it at the earliest stages of the MVP development process and testing your app in parallel. At Purrweb, we do it, paying much attention to the security of user data.
Step 5: Release
Essentially, launching your finished application and getting feedback from the first users. Ideas and suggestions from the comments of users can be used to improve the app.
If you want to learn even more about app development, you can check out our complete guide.
Healthcare MVP development costs
Healthcare MVP development costs depend on the complexity of the app. So, how much does an MVP cost? Healthcare MVP development prices depend on the complexity of the app. There are three possible options for our clients: a simple app, an average-complexity app, and a complex app. The final costs vary depending on the type.
| App Type | Description | Examples | Cost |
| Simple App | Basic features with a standard, template-based user interface | Brochures, maps, GPS trackers | $37,500 |
| Average-Complexity | More elaborate functionality and design | Fitness apps | $67,500 |
| Complex App | Fully customized with advanced features and UI. May involve new technology developed specifically for your needs | Telemedicine platforms, medical data analytics apps, healthcare monitoring systems, financial trading platforms | Starts from $90,000 |
Why Develop Your Healthcare MVP with Purrweb
A healthcare startup feels like something special. Entrepreneurs create healthcare products not just to make a profit, but to improve the experience of healthcare providers and patients.
However, the healthcare MVP development process can also be rather challenging. Developers deal with the integration and processing of medical data, while designers create intuitive and informative interfaces.
➡️ At Purrweb, we’ve designed and developed apps for the healthcare industry. It helped us build expertise tailored to the challenges of developing healthcare MVPs.
If you are looking for a reliable development team or have an idea for a healthcare solution, contact us using the form below.
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